Back cover blurbs and other mysteries

A new friend of mine, and really good writer, KM Wilsher is "featuring" me on her blog today! She's studying the one-line hooks and back cover blurbs of published and unpublished authors she knows as she works on developing those things for her novel in progress. (She let me read a short story she wrote--while I was reading it all I could think was, "This should be expanded into a book," and then she told me that is exactly what she is doing. Way cool!)

Anyway, I think it is brilliant of her to be learning about hooks and blurbs while she promotes other authors. Why didn't I think of that?

Writing queries, which requires summarizing your entire novel in a paragraph or two, while hitting on the key selling points, is much, much, much harder than it sounds if you've never done it. I've written several versions of query letters, and it's enough to make me want to tear my hair out. (Thinking about shaving it all off to avoid the temptation...hee, hee.)

I had no idea when I set out to write a book that I'd have to learn how to put the whole thing into a one-line "hook." It's maddening. But if you'd like to see the opening of my latest query letter, you can find it in KM Wilsher's post at http://kmwilsher.blogspot.com/. Hopefully, you'll find it intriguing...